Autopsy Cats lose to GWS* AFL trust fund babies by 26 points.

[Zuta]

I'm hoping that the report that the bug that kept Smith out last week swept through the club early in the week was true and that we are a better side than was on display last night.It certainly looked as though energy levels dropped quickly.

If this is anything to go by there might be something in that theory. I haven't seen us with such a low KM covered.

 

[ShaunWDT]

One of our last chances to see how we go against decent opposition and all in all you have to be disappointed with that.

Still a long way to go but hard to see us doing real damage in September

GWS are just a woeful matchup for us all over the ground, probably the side we'd least want to see in the business end, got the grunt and speed on the inside, a class forward line with multiple avenues to goal that we can't contain and a defence that with full availability is absolutely elite.

People forget GWS have had injuries all season they are just starting to hum now as they get personnel back going to be dangerous as in the back half of the year.

 

[standupand]

I haven't seen the game but by the posts read i wonder if the coaches were playing funny buggers and leaving aces up sleeves? I dont think I'll bother with the replay.

Watch the first 15 minutes then turn it off. You'll come away thinking we're flag material.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

A game behind top 4 in reality though (no way Suns lose to Essendon in that game still to be played)

We aren't a game behind yet as the Suns still have the Q clash plus Adelaide and gws to come. If they win the Q clash then we are a game behind but I doubt they beat Brisbane

 

[ShaunWDT]

Watch the first 15 minutes then turn it off. You'll come away thinking we're flag material.

Its the inability to maintain the level thats concerning, GWS lifted after an old fashioned spray and we just couldn't go with them at all

 

[standupand]

View attachment 2366753
If this is anything to go by there might be something in that theory. I haven't seen us with such a low KM covered.

Those stats don't lie. Can't expect a result when you only do 2/3 of the work.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

We came out firing we, I don't think attitude was the issue.

We need a win somewhere around the ground which we can then pull the game to. Against well structured teams with inside strong midfields, we just have no counter. When we play someone at our level it becomes clear we're relying on quite a few oldies to be our difference makers who are just hanging on by a thread.

I wish we could protect Stanley, Danger, Cameron, Blicavs and Stewart by giving them 2 games off over the rest of the home and away season. Our positional depth just isn't there. We need them fresh in September if we are to compete.

That's what the pre finals bye is for.

 

[ShaunWDT]

Those stats don't lie. Can't expect a result when you only do 2/3 of the work.

We get exposed the exact same way, Brisbane killed us on transition aswell its a reality that makes me think when the whips are cracking we are just going to be making up the numbers regardless of a decent in season record.

 

[standupand]

Its the inability to maintain the level thats concerning, GWS lifted after an old fashioned spray and we just couldn't go with them at all

I've seen too many of these sorts of games to have any real concern about it. The only concern is if what appeared to be niggling injuries to key players become more than that over the coming weeks.

 

[Gyno79]

The cats have won more games against top 8 teams than anyone else. They’re just going through a bit of a slump in the last few weeks. Hopefully they can win enough games to be in the top 4 and give it a good crack

Heavy training load?

 

[ShaunWDT]

They also made Holmes, Smith and Atkins look like traffic cones a lot of the time too, in fairness. It was like a training drill around stoppages and when they won the ball back.

When you have to hide a pure one dimensional inside mid in a forward pocket because they are getting cooked to such a significant degree its pretty clear they just arent up to the level lol, George will learn from that but hes got a long way to go to match it with the big boys.

 

[Lana]

View attachment 2366753
If this is anything to go by there might be something in that theory. I haven't seen us with such a low KM covered.

IF only they provide that information in a better format

 

[Frappe]

After that 5-10min burst in the second quarter, we appeared to tighten up and our pressure was ok. It was the kick into the half forward line that killed us. Maybe we needed to go wider or deeper towards the pockets. This way they couldn't run the ball through the middle of the ground. It wasn't as though we forced their midfield to push back either. They had the luxury of being able to anticipate the turnover and hold their position in the middle of the ground.

Our defence battled hard considering the quality of entries they had, but our efforts to kill the ball at times were sub-par. That last goal Cadman (I think) snapped, where the ball was floated in from a slow build up and managed to bounce into his path summed up the night.

 

[thegerman]

I haven't seen the game but by the posts read i wonder if the coaches were playing funny buggers and leaving aces up sleeves? I dont think I'll bother with the replay.

No funny buggars we were just terrible

 

[thegerman]

Reality check for people that carry on after one game of footy on a very weak opposition, if the opposition has burst out of the stoppage hes a total liability, Calla and co made him look like a traffic cone today.

If you blame him for that you need to also include Atkins, Holmes and Smith who take the vast majority of the midfield minutes.

 

[Cataholic]

No funny buggars we were just terrible

Yep, simply beaten by a better team.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Getting the feeling 2025 is going the same way as 2024. We're good, but not good enough, with still too many weaknesses that get exposed badly against the top sides.

Have we been worked out over the past month?

- The impact of Holmes and Smith has been well down. Sides are either exposing them defensively or clamping down on them.

- OD has had a putrid month, with his aversion to the hard stuff becoming far more noticeable than the anything he's doing with the ball.

- Our skills have dropped alarmingly. I don't put it down to pressure entirely either. The first quarter from Brisbane was the start and to be honest it hasn't improved, even last week against Richmond wasn't flash. Sides are feasting on our turnovers, which we seem to be committing in terrible spots on the field, exposing our defence badly.

Is it our first real bad patch of the year? Possibly, but it's at the worst possible time when spots for top 4 are up for grabs and we're starting to flounder.

Not sure about being worked out but our pressure and skills have certainly dropped off.

Compare our pressure earlier in the year to now. There’s a significant drop off.
Players just aren’t pulling their weight.

This team now, is more than capable. We’ve seen it.
It’s either fitness or between the ears or both.

We look extremely lazy. Leaving it for the next bloke. Picking and choosing when to go.

Not playing team football.

Really disappointing, especially since we’ve played great football this year.

 

[Pollywaffle]

Anybody mentioned the perennial ‘heavy training load’ yet.
Grasping at straws here….

 

[allrighty]

Watch the first 15 minutes then turn it off. You'll come away thinking we're flag material.

I thought about that. Then thought I'd want to keep watching ... so pass for me!

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

The cats have won more games against top 8 teams than anyone else. They’re just going through a bit of a slump in the last few weeks. Hopefully they can win enough games to be in the top 4 and give it a good crack

Our 4 defeats are x2 Lions & x2 GWS, so pretty clear who we need to avoid in september.

 

[ShaunWDT]

If you blame him for that you need to also include Atkins, Holmes and Smith who take the vast majority of the midfield minutes.

Obviously you judge the midfield as a collective but the only reason he didnt get midfield minutes was because if he did wed have lost by 100 lol, role was fine initially before it became clear to the coaches he was just getting destroyed in there, team-mates can only do so much to help you out when you get sidestepped with ease and dont transition run defensively at all, he can't even tackle at senior level because the players just shrug him off and burst clear needs plenty of work to ever make it and avoid being in that class above VFL but not AFL standard no mans land that plenty have come and gone in before him but got plenty of time yet.

 

[TheCattery2007]

We missed two key players:

• SDK
• Stengel

Both critical for us. Add Kolo, particularly against big sized forwards like GWS (although I’m not sure he’s back this year).
We lost Jez for a chunk of the game and he was clearly wounded.

I’m not sure Smith was fit after illness last week. You only need to be 5% - 10% off to look ordinary. It’s pretty common for a player missing with illness the previous week to look ordinary when they return - they are only human.

We need to talk about Ollie. Danger midfield (maybe we are saving this for finals) and Ollie forward? Remember Danger played as a mid when we looked like world beaters…

Those things aside, Big Shannon, against a quality opponent, very nice.

So, bring back SDK, Stengel (underrated how important he is for us), Smith recovered, Holmes less fumbly! And we look a different side.

We need to remember this team is really quite young - under 23s - Dempsey, Neale, Holmes, Humphries, O Henry (plus Clohsey, George, Knevitt - all will make it). A bit of luck and we can pinch the flag, don’t be surprised if we fall just shot, but enjoy the ride.

PS - I watched some of the VFL, get excited some of these rucks coming through! Edwards(206cm!, 20), Pike (201, 20), Molier (203, 18, 4 goals). First game all three have played together. Edwards hit a player lace out with a 40m kick - he has some serious talent. They are rucks that can turn into KPF/KPD. Clohsey very very good and Knevitt looks to have been working in the gym, he looked big.

 

[Vdubs]

Not really. Some top teams like Collingwood have an awful bottom 6 of potatoes (Brisbane by contrast have a really good bottom 6) but what Collingwood have is their 5 or so really elite players keep shooting the lights out plus some of their vets chip on really well.
Bar Smith our top end players are not playing to their optimal level this year. Swapping guys like mullin/moc/stevens/martin/bowes/OH (we can't swap Stanley as we have no other ruck) for clohesy/knevitt/clark/bews/Duncan (if he was fit) will help maybe a little but not a lot.

We simply can't win the flag unless Smith Holmes Cameron Stewart (who has been down but was better today) Miers Danger and Blicavs (because he covers the ruck issue to some extent) shoot the lights out and your mid tier atkins zuthrie stengle/mannagh etc really hit a quality level. Those elite guys help us cover the structural holes we have elsewhere.

It's not the bottom 6 that is the issue.

Pies bottom 6 is pretty good.
We are a bit like Carlton- elite top end, but if you look at it unbiasedly, our lesser lights are very lesser and although we love our own, they are very middle of the road. Not insulting, just how it appears, and we should not be expecting Danger, JC, Blic to stand up week after week

 

[ShaunWDT]

Question for me is what did Clohesy and Knevitt do to deserve not getting the same opportunity, and would they actually be any worse? Think we'll find out in the coming weeks.

 

[ShaunWDT]

We missed two key players:

• SDK
• Stengel

Both critical for us. Add Kolo, particularly against big sized forwards like GWS (although I’m not sure he’s back this year).
We lost Jez for a chunk of the game and he was clearly wounded.

I’m not sure Smith was fit after illness last week. You only need to be 5% - 10% off to look ordinary. It’s pretty common for a player missing with illness the previous week to look ordinary when they return - they are only human.

We need to talk about Ollie. Danger midfield (maybe we are saving this for finals) and Ollie forward? Remember Danger played as a mid when we looked like world beaters…

Those things aside, Big Shannon, against a quality opponent, very nice.

So, bring back SDK, Stengel (underrated how important he is for us), Smith recovered, Holmes less fumbly! And we look a different side.

We need to remember this team is really quite young - under 23s - Dempsey, Neale, Holmes, Humphries, O Henry (plus Clohsey, George, Knevitt - all will make it). A bit of luck and we can pinch the flag, don’t be surprised if we fall just shot, but enjoy the ride.

PS - I watched some of the VFL, get excited some of these rucks coming through! Edwards(206cm!, 20), Pike (201, 20), Molier (203, 18, 4 goals). First game all three have played together. Edwards hit a player lace out with a 40m kick - he has some serious talent. They are rucks that can turn into KPF/KPD. Clohsey very very good and Knevitt looks to have been working in the gym, he looked big.

Danger is just reality of an ageing player whose body has had a massive workload his whole career he might not ever have the capacity to be the player we love on a consistent basis, Ollie Ive always said we should play far more as a forward than winger, suits his skillset alot better regardless of the stat sheet.